The business model of the publishing industry has remained relatively stable throughout the majority of the 20th century. Content providers typically utilized a model that can be best described as “high-quality journalistic art,” where a group of talented writers and editors immerse themselves in topical areas that are of interest to the targeted demographic. They then create content that fits within the general boundaries defined by the interests of the target audience. On the other side, an audience can establish affinity to the publisher by waiting for their favorite authors to publish the next article, or by reading only about the topics they care about. Over time, a deep and personal relationship may be established between a publisher and its audience.
In general, the introduction of the Internet has lowered the barrier to entry for publishers, widening the variety of choices for consumers and effectively commoditizing content. Increased competition for consumers' attention can shorten consumption time per consumer for a publisher, which can create a challenging environment for publishers to maintain the deep personal relationships with consumers that they once enjoyed. With the introduction of social networks, this deep relationship can be re-established—achieving both wider consumer reach and deeper consumer relationships, which in turn drives increased site traffic and ad impressions. But personalization and optimization of content delivery to the audience remains challenging. It is with respect to these considerations and others that the present invention has been made.